Hey! Long time no see everyone! Well, I started this a very long time ago and I am almost done, so I figured I should just start posting it now. So, this is a Fullmetal Alchemist story. Long story short a buddy of mine from school has not only a FMA obsession but also an OC for the series. Since she learned that I can write she kept asking me to write s story for her. Needless to say, I caved. So, there are two original characters in this story. Catherine Cairo is my friend's and Sarah Kaine is my own. I'll put some links up on my profile so you can check out my friends DA, she has pictures. Anywho, I hope you like this story, I tried to make it as interesting as possible. One more things though, this is in the anime-verse of FMA and because of the presence of OCs some of the events or facts have been changed, please don't kill me.

I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist and I make no profit by writing this. Everything belongs to their respective owners.

Warning: This story contains strong language and violence, as well as situations that may not be suitable for minors. If you are squeamish I recommend you be cautious in reading this.

This chapter was beta'd by the amazing Taijiya Mizu! (Seriously, she's awesome for putting up with all of my mistakes.)

©Yakubi

Only Human

Chapter One

Edward Elric grumbled as he walked down the hall, his hands shoved in his pockets with a sour expression painted on his face. The metallic clinking of his brother's armor ricocheted of the walls and echoed down the halls. Catherine fumed behind the Elric brothers. "That bastard!" Catherine said to no one in particular.

"Tell me about it!" Ed threw his hands up into the air. "We're finally getting close to the stone and what does he do? He calls us back! We might not be able to track down this Marcoh guy again!"

"You two..." Al groaned. "It's not nearly as bad as you make it seem."

"Yes it is!" Catherine and Ed shot back.

"He's waiting for you all so you'd best hurry." Havoc nodded as the three alchemists passed his desk on the way to Mustang's office.

"Thanks Havoc." Ed said as he walked past.

"Welcome, Chief." Havoc grinned, the cigarette in his mouth nearly falling.

Catherine snatched the cigarette from Havoc's mouth and threw it in his garbage can. "Stop smoking already!" Havoc smiled at the blond girl as she walked past. He nodded at Al as the youngest of the group bowed politely before moving towards Mustang's office.

Ed waited for his brother and friend to catch up to him. He put his automail hand on the door knob. "You guys ready?" Nods followed. Ed sighed before turning the brass knob and pushing his way into Mustang's office. "Alright, Colonel Bastard, what the hell do you want?" Ed walked into the room, only to stop in his tracks.

Standing there was a girl. The girl was completely covered in a long black cloak, the only visible thing being her head and feet. Ed's eyes were locked with hers. Edward didn't know what it was, but something about her seemed... wrong. Her face showed no emotions and her eyes were the color of an angry sea. It was a blue so deep he thought he would drown in it. Ed barely felt Catherine bump into him, but it was enough to break the strangle hold the girl's eyes had on him. "Ed, you alright?"

Ed walked forward a bit more so everyone could enter the room. He did his best not to make eye contact with the strange girl. "Brother?" Alphonse asked stepping into the office behind Catherine. "Brother...?"

Edward looked to his two team mates. "It's nothing." The blond teen felt a chill go down his spine. He knew the strange girl was looking at him.

"So..." Al turned to bow politely to the dark girl. "Are you here to see Colonel Mustang as well?" Alphonse sounded cheerful.

The girl looked at Al. "No." That was all she said, but her voice seemed to penetrate to the three's very souls. Something about this girl was wrong.

"Oh... th-then what are you doing here?" Alphonse shuddered.

"Colonel Mustang told me to wait here." Her voice was like velvet. Velvet soaked in blood.

Catherine decided to try her hand at talking to the strange girl. "Well..." the blond laughed nervously. "Are you a member of the military?" Seeing as they were in a military building, it seemed like a safe enough question.

"Yes, I joined today."

"Really?" The lighter blue of Catherine's eyes met the far darker of the other girl's. "Are you a soldier?"

"No-"

"Ah!" The door opened behind the three alchemists. Colonel Mustang walked through the group and over to the girl. He stood beside her and did not seemed bothered to do so. "Alright you three, I'd like you to meet Miss Sarah Kaine. She's the newest state alchemist to join our ranks." Mustang then gestured to Ed, then Al, then Cat. "Please meet Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, and his brother Alphonse who is also an alchemist, though he's not registered with the state. The blond girl there is Catherine Cairo, the Quick-Edge Alchemist. These three are very good at what they do." Mustang seemed almost proud. Then again, the three were the best known alchemists in all of East and Central. Not to mention the two in the military had both been recruited by him. "Seeing as you're new, I figured I'd put you with two of our best." Roy smiled at her as though he saw nothing wrong, even though her very presence affected everyone else in.

"You're putting her with us?" Ed asked, shocked.

"Yes I am Fullmetal. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Well yeah I do, Cat is my partner, and I've already got Al."

Roy turned to Sarah. He put his hand on her head and gave her a pat, messing her already messy brown hair. "Why don't you go wait outside with Havoc? I need to talk to Ed here."

A small flush came to the dark girl's cheeks. Her hand twitched, the urge to slap the colonel's hand away nearly taking her. "Yes, sir." The girl turned around and bowed to them all before leaving.

Ed watched her go and noticed her hair for the first time. It was a dark, rich chestnut color. Though the top of her hair messily framed her face the rest of it was in a neatly groomed braid that fell all the way to the back of the girl's knees. The door closed behind her with a click. "What was that about Colonel? You seemed very out of character."

Roy sighed before dropping himself into his chair. "You have no idea." Roy massaged the bridge of his nose with his gloved fingers. "I've been trying to be friendly with her so she'll open up a little, but no luck so far." Roy leaned forward and rested his face on his intertwined fingers. He looked very serious. "Fullmetal, Quick-Edge, let me get straight to the point. I'm not assigning her to you because I like it. Personally, I don't think you need someone like her with you, but it was an order from the Fuhrer himself. He wanted her to be assigned to another state alchemist as soon as possible."

"The Fuhrer!?" Catherine gasped. "What does he have to do with all of this?"

"I don't know..." Roy growled. "But I will find out. That girl suddenly appeared in my office with a letter from the King. She was given the title of State Alchemist, and I was at the state tests. She wasn't. Something stinks here, I just hope the rot isn't coming from the top of this food chain because if it is, we'll start rotting too." Roy glanced at the three before him. "I need you three to keep an eye on her. To tell you the truth, the only thing we know about her is her name and second name. That and her physical features of course. Not even Hughes could find anything about her; she doesn't even have a birth certificate. And yet with all of that, the Fuhrer made her a State Alchemist. I didn't even get to see her test, so I have no idea what kind of power she has."

"What's her second name Colonel? Maybe that can give us a hint to what she can do," Alphonse said.

"Her second name is strange." Roy paused. "She's called the Blood Alchemist, and it's impossible to transmute blood because it's part of humans- that would be human transmutation." Roy looked over the three before him. "I'm trusting you three to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't do anything suspicious." Nods followed his statement. "I want you to send me letters regularly about what you observe." Roy reached into his desk and pulled out a paper before handing it to Edward.

"What's this?" The older Elric asked.

"It's a code. I can't have you sending me letters that plainly say I'm having you spy on one of the Fuhrer's own, can I?" Roy smiled, but then his expression turned grim. "I can't let something like this get overlooked, Fullmetal, Quick-Edge. I'm trusting you with this. Please don't let something this big slip through your fingers."

"Don't worry Mustang." Catherine threw a blinding smile in the direction of the grim colonel. "We'll keep an eye on her. You know how Ed and I are. We'll get the job done,and if we don't, Al here will make sure to give us a good kick in the ass to get us going again." She smiled again.

Mustang gave the team a rare smile, but only for a moment. "Alright then, where are you off to now?"

Edward scoffed. "The same place we were going to go to before you called us here." Obviously he couldn't say out loud where he was going, lest the room was bugged.

"I see. Good luck, you'll need it." Mustang stood and gave them a salute, which the two state alchemists mirrored, Alphonse bowed. "You are dismissed." Mustang sat down at his desk. Today was going to be a long day, and it was going to be filled with worry for his subordinates and lots and lots of paper work. He could already hear his first lieutenant's gun clicking. Roy sighed before starting on the stack of paper work closest to him.

Outside, some kind of weird staring contest was taking place between Catherine and Edward and Sarah. The girl just looked up blankly at them from her seat in front of Havoc's desk. "So ah..." Havoc started. "How's everything, Chief?"

"Everything's fine Havoc. This girl here is our new partner." Ed continued to look at Sarah.

"Is that so? Well, Miss Kaine here seems like a cute enough girl." A slight flush appeared on the girl's cheeks, so she looked away quickly, but other than that there was no change to her cold exterior. "I hope you kids have fun. Don't get into too many adventures if you know what I mean." Havoc laughed before pulling out a cigarette and placing the poison on his lips. He started digging in his pockets for his lighter.

Just as Catherine opened her mouth to yell at Havoc she noticed Sarah lean over Havoc's desk and pull the cigarette out from between his lips. "These things are bad for you. You should quit." Sarah's voice just dared Havoc to question her as she threw the cigarette into the garbage can before settling back into her seat. She looked up at Edward. "Mr. Elric, what are your plans?" The girl asked evenly.

"Oh um..." No one had ever called him 'Mister Elric' before, and he didn't think he liked it. It made him sound old. He scratched the back of his head. "Please don't call me that." Ed laughed nervously. "For now I think we should get going back to the hotel we were staying at. I think you should join us. We need to learn more about each other if we are going to be working together." Ed looked at Cat and Al and saw that they agreed with him. They needed to get information on this girl. He looked back at the dark girl; she seemed to be thinking it over.

Sarah looked back at them. "Very well, I will join you in your hotel." The girl stood up to leave. Cat, Ed, and Al all exchanged looks before heading towards that door. "Mr. Havoc..."

Havoc, who had stood up to bid the alchemists farewell, turned to look at the girl who was standing sheepishly by his desk ."What is it?" Havoc looked at the girl.

The dark girl bowed deeply to the man. "Thank you." And then she ran out of the room to follow her new companions.

Havoc sat back down and scratched the back of his head. "Weird girl, but still cute." Havoc chuckled. "Still, very weird." Havoc reached into his pocket to pull out a cigarette. He stuck it in his mouth and pulled out his lighter. He lit the cigarette and took a deep breath. He let the smoke fill his lungs before blowing the poisoned air out of his mouth. He could feel the nicotine entering his system. And then the door was thrown open and a very pissed off Catherine Cairo entered his office.

"I told you to quit that shit!" The blond girl bellowed before taking Havoc's cigarette and smothering it before throwing it into his trash can. The alchemist huffed before heading back out of the room to join her companions outside the military building.

Havoc looked very put out as he looked into his garbage can. Three wasted cigarettes greeted him, but he didn't dare pull out another one for at least an hour. Havoc sighed as he leaned back in his uncomfortable office chair. That girl must have a damn radar. Every time he tried to smoke, and she was within five miles, she seemed to teleport to his office and yell at him about his bad habit. Havoc's hand itched to pull out a cigarette. There seemed to be no chance of smoking until the four alchemists left town; as it seemed the newest member of the team had a problem with his habit as well. Maybe he should quit; it's not as if smoking was making him look any younger.

Colonel Mustang walked out of his office and greeted the scowling lieutenant. Mustang chuckled. "Cairo take your cigarettes again?"

"Not just her." Havoc grumbled. "The new girl too."

Mustang laughed. "You know you should quit. It's not good for you." Havoc just fumed.

Yay! So that's the first chapter, hopefully you are at least partially interested now. Feel free to leave comments or questions, corrections would also be appreciated (I am the Queen of Typo). Also, I am having a hard time naming this story and I'm not sure I like the name I came up with, if you have any ideas please let me know. Anywho, I will see you next chapter, please leave a comment!

~Yakubi